To Live, To Die, To Live Again

Gaël Morel's 2024 French film follows a triangle in the last years of the twentieth century. Emma loves Sammy, Sammy loves Cyril, Cyril loves Emma. In another period this arrangement might have been a simple love story; the arrival of AIDS blows it apart and each character's fate turns in an unexpected direction. Morel comes from that generation himself and builds the film not as commemoration but as an account of what came after for those who survived: the subject is not death but what people who expected to die and did not went on to do years later. Victor Belmondo's performance carries that uncertainty. The story moves between two timeframes and the transitions are sometimes abrupt. Who it's for: viewers interested in French queer cinema and stories of the AIDS generation. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding content about illness, addiction and death, or who will struggle with the jumps in time.